Do you believe in other life in the Universe?

[airrifle82]

When I look up at the stars at night, or just really think about it, it's hard for me to imagine we are it.

 

[femurphy77]

I'm still struggling with the thought of intelligent life in California!

... and they're still struggling to find intelligence.
Burnt brain cells can't be replaced.

I guess Kalifornia "could" be considered a different universe.

I feel a little sorry for the non-urban Californians, they might actually be pretty decent people.

 

[T.Lex]

When I look up at the stars at night, or just really think about it, it's hard for me to imagine we are it.

Welcome to INGO.

At the risk of being perceived as too confrontational, why is that hard to imagine? Keep in mind, you're imagining takes place in a given time-slice of all of history. We might be "it" for "right now."

We might not be "it" in terms of the entirety of celestial history.

 

[amboy49]

For those who have a passing interest in quantum theories, there is a good video put out by Veritasium on Pilot-Wave theory....an alternate and more understandable explanation of the double-slit experiment. Although the initial concepts were brought out by DeBroglie in the 1920's, the Copenhagen interpretation has been the accepted gestalt for most of the 20th century. DeBroglie-Bohm is gaining traction again. About time.

[video=youtube_share;WIyTZDHuarQ]http://youtu.be/WIyTZDHuarQ[/video]

Whut ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

 

[T.Lex]

True. But then again we may not.

Indeed.

(I had a longer post ready, but opted to defer.)

We do not know. We do know that we don't know of any others now.

 

[JettaKnight]

Indeed.

(I had a longer post ready, but opted to defer.)

We do not know. We do know that we don't know of any others now.

How do you know you don't know?

 

[T.Lex]

How do you know you don't know?

Believe me. I know.

 

[JettaKnight]

Believe me. I know.

And now I know that you know that you don't know.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Being able to know what you don't know is more important you might know....

 

[Spear Dane]

One of these days either a rover on Mars or the James Webb telescope is going to uncover definitive proof of life elsewhere. Everywhere on this planet we used to be absolutely sure there could NOT be life...we have found it.
We have found it thousands of feet down in the ocean around geo-thermal vents spitting methane, sulfers and water up to 850 degrees.
We have found marine plankton growing on the solar panels of the ISS. Yes, whale food can grow in space. Where the temperature swings 500 degrees as the station orbits in and out of the sun light. Then there's radiation.
We have found life underneath Antarctica. 4000 new species in a lake thousands of feet under the ice sheet.
So yeah, keep thinking there isn't life out there. You're gonna be really confused and butt hurt in near future when it turns out you were wrong.

 

[AtTheMurph]

The Drake equation.......

I know there is life out there because I had a run in with one of them. It disappeared in a brilliant flash of light up in the tree tops. Lit up the entire backyard. Wife and dog are witnesses it as well but dog isn't talking.

 

[T.Lex]

So yeah, keep thinking there isn't life out there. You're gonna be really confused and butt hurt in near future when it turns out you were wrong.

That seems like a big jump.

I mean, the microbial "life" in the ocean vents is life. But, isn't particularly sentient. I'll concede that the chance of that kind of life is more likely than "intelligent" life (by whatever measure you want to use for that).

Would you be confused and butt hurt if that's all the "other" life that is in the universe? If not, I don't think it worthwhile to project those feelings on those who disagree.

 

[Alpo]

Doesn't it sort of depend on how you build the model of your reality T.Lex? If being the only intelligent life form on the only planet with life, which is in the middle of the universe around which all the heavens rotate, and continue to rotate since the beginning 6,000 years ago....

...well, there's a lot of butthurt potential there. Or denial.

And, perhaps more unfortunate, we allow these people to make decisions affecting others.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I mean, the microbial "life" in the ocean vents is life. But, isn't particularly sentient.

How are we to know what philosophical ponderings occur among those microbes?

Maybe they have long debates about the possibility of life beyond their own world.

 

[T.Lex]

Doesn't it sort of depend on how you build the model of your reality T.Lex? If being the only intelligent life form on the only planet with life, which is in the middle of the universe around which all the heavens rotate, and continue to rotate since the beginning 6,000 years ago....

...well, there's a lot of butthurt potential there. Or denial.

Ok.

So, too, then the potential for frustrated seekers re-defining "life" on other planets to suit their definition of the moment.

How are we to know what philosophical ponderings occur among those microbes?

Maybe they have long debates about the possibility of life beyond their own world.

Sure, but they need to exhibit actions that communicate that to us.

And yes, there is a bit of a paradox there. Are we communicating our sentient-ness to them.

 

[ATM]

...Are we communicating our sentient-ness to them.

Would they even find our jokes sentientertaining?

So many questions...

 

[T.Lex]

Would they even find our jokes sentientertaining?

So many questions...

I'll have you know, that I'm considered VERY funny by single-celled individuals. Lawyers love my humor.

 

[JettaKnight]

Doesn't it sort of depend on how you build the model of your reality T.Lex? If being the only intelligent life form on the only planet with life, which is in the middle of the universe around which all the heavens rotate, and continue to rotate since the beginning 6,000 years ago....

...well, there's a lot of butthurt potential there. Or denial.

And, perhaps more unfortunate, we allow these people to make decisions affecting others.

Please don't clump those all together; it's a textbook straw man argument.

Two of those three have been rather easily disproved; the other is merely conjectured to be false through probability based on the current theory of the origin of life.

 

[Route 45]

One of these days either a rover on Mars or the James Webb telescope is going to uncover definitive proof of life elsewhere. Everywhere on this planet we used to be absolutely sure there could NOT be life...we have found it.
We have found it thousands of feet down in the ocean around geo-thermal vents spitting methane, sulfers and water up to 850 degrees.
We have found marine plankton growing on the solar panels of the ISS. Yes, whale food can grow in space. Where the temperature swings 500 degrees as the station orbits in and out of the sun light. Then there's radiation.
We have found life underneath Antarctica. 4000 new species in a lake thousands of feet under the ice sheet.
So yeah, keep thinking there isn't life out there. You're gonna be really confused and butt hurt in near future when it turns out you were wrong.

Butt hurt? Nah. There is probably already a new "interpretation" by an "esteemed scholar" to account for the new information. That, or some con man will throw a rock into a hat, stick his face in the hat and find a new revelation, which millions will lap up like deer to a salt lick.

 

[Alpo]

I'll have you know, that I'm considered VERY funny by single-celled individuals. Lawyers love my humor.

That comment wins the internet for the day.